# est / The Forum / Landmark · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/056-est-the-forum-landmark/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
The same words a person sees on this page, nothing more and nothing hidden.
Our own words are free to use under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), naming the Congregation of Tomorrow. Words of others keep their own terms.
Every page of the site, listed: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/ai/pages.json · the whole site in one file: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/llms-full.txt

← The Cult Dossier: all 182
The Cult Dossier · No. 056 · Commercial / Therapy / Lgat
est / The Forum / Landmark
Erhard Seminars Training; Landmark Worldwide
1971 – present · San Francisco; worldwide
VI. THE 1970s — THE GREAT PROLIFERATION
Explicitly non-religious — Large Group Awareness Training
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- October 1971 First est training in San Francisco.
- 1971–1984 GRADUATE NUMBERS — THIS FILE PREVIOUSLY PRINTED 'ROUGHLY 700,000' AS FACT AND SHOULD NOT HAVE. Published estimates for the whole run range from ABOUT 500,000 TO NEARLY ONE MILLION, and the figure at the top of that range comes largely from sources ASSOCIATED WITH EST GRADUATES THEMSELVES — interested parties. THE ONE FIRM ANCHOR: APPROXIMATELY 100,000 HAD COMPLETED THE TRAINING BY JANUARY 1977. The 700,000 commonly quoted is a mid-range figure, not a count.
- 1977 The Hunger Project launched; heavily criticised for raising funds largely to promote awareness rather than to feed anyone.
- 1984 est replaced by The Forum, a softened version without the toilet restrictions.
- 3 March 1991 A 60 Minutes broadcast carries allegations by Erhard's daughters of abuse; Erhard leaves the United States. He later sued CBS; the network retracted parts of the story in 1992 and one daughter recanted.
- 1991 Erhard sells the technology to his employees, who form LANDMARK EDUCATION (now Landmark Worldwide). Erhard receives a licence fee stream until 2009.
- 1990s–present Landmark Forum operates worldwide; three days plus an evening, several hundred dollars, with heavy pressure on graduates to enrol friends and family — the practice most often cited by critics.
- 2004 France's parliamentary commission on cults lists Landmark; the company withdraws from France in 2004.
- 2006 Landmark drops a defamation suit against the Cult Awareness Network's successor and against Rick Ross.
### Its people
### Werner Erhard
John Paul Rosenberg
Founder, est / The Forum · born 5 September 1935 · active 1971–1991
Before the law. Never charged. Won a settlement from CBS. Landmark has litigated the cult label repeatedly.
Where things stand. Living. Has since worked in academic-adjacent leadership research.
- October 1971 First est training in San Francisco.
- 1971–84 Estimates range from about 500,000 to nearly a million; roughly 100,000 had completed it by January 1977. See group file 048 — the often-quoted 700,000 is a mid-range estimate, not a count.
- 1984 est replaced by The Forum.
- 3 March 1991 60 Minutes broadcast; he leaves the United States.
- 1991 Sells the technology; Landmark Education is formed.
- 1992 CBS retracts parts of the broadcast.
Checked 2026-08-24 · living: health details are kept at home
The Atlas The Door